برچسب: Love

In hind­sight, it is not sur­pris­ing that the film’s nos­tal­gic ren­di­tion of 1962 Hong Kong left such an indeli­ble influ­ence on an entire gen­er­a­tion of cineast­es. In the 2000s, Wong’s for­mal and nar­ra­tive restraint set him apart from the increas­ing­ly grandiose cin­e­mat­ic ambi­tions of both Chi­nese and Hol­ly­wood stu­dios. Dur­ing this peri­od, his peers like Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou chore­o­graphed com­plex fight scenes on pic­turesque vis­tas, inter­spersed with charged moments of intense melo­dra­ma. Wong resist­ed any temp­ta­tions towards man­u­fac­tur­ing max­i­mal­ist spec­ta­cles. Even com­pared to oth­er works in his oeu­vre, In the Mood for Love is notice­ably lack­ing in kinet­ic fren­zies of vio­lence or bursts of pas­sion­ate inti­ma­cy. Instead, the film con­sists of long takes where char­ac­ters, no more than one or two at a time, appear in the shot: writ­ing, eat­ing or sit­ting in plumes of cig­a­rette smoke. In close-ups, yearn­ing stares and brief moments of phys­i­cal con­tact are in full focus. In the wide shot, lone­some fig­ures walk away into the distance. 

Of course, the film’s last­ing lega­cy is more than just a mood board ref­er­ence. At the turn-of-the-cen­tu­ry, Wong’s mag­num opus exists in con­tra­dic­tion to the promis­es of a new age. As the inter­net instan­ta­neous­ly con­nect­ed bil­lions of users around the globe, In the Mood for Love real­ized an inter­per­son­al con­nec­tion that tran­scend­ed the frame­work of forums, chat rooms or video calls. For 25 years, gen­er­a­tions of view­ers raised in cyber­space con­tin­ue to res­onate with a decep­tive­ly sim­ple nar­ra­tive of a love affair that nev­er comes to fruition. In the wake of unfet­tered eco­nom­ic glob­al­iza­tion and the explo­sion of WiFi access around the world, Wong swam against the tides of dig­i­tal excess. Except for a few phone calls and a telegram, signs of mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy are absent from the film. By plac­ing us in the past, divorced from our con­nec­tions to the dis­trac­tions of the present moment, Wong mines for the raw essence of a feeling. 

The pro­tag­o­nists nev­er get to unleash their desires on screen. In the hands of anoth­er film­mak­er, Leung and Che­ung would’ve like­ly been direct­ed to throw them­selves into each other’s arms, undress­ing in a steamy cli­max to relieve the 90 min­utes of sim­mer­ing sex­u­al ten­sion. Against all con­ven­tions and instincts, Wong instead pulls his two star-crossed lovers apart. There is no scan­dalous affair, just a fleet­ing slip into a fan­ta­sy that nev­er tru­ly plays out. With the film’s con­clu­sion in mind, all the instances of con­trolled affec­tion, the silent stares, the late-night writ­ing ses­sions and the tame re-enact­ments of adul­tery feel even more erot­ic. The cou­ple don’t end up rid­ing off into the sun­set togeth­er, but the time they shared as neigh­bors has left a seis­mic impact on their lives. Like ide­al­ized mem­o­ries that stray fur­ther from the truth each pass­ing day, each of Wong’s images rev­el in the sat­u­rat­ed shad­ows of a nos­tal­gic mirage. 

In the Mood for Love clear­ly bears an impor­tant per­son­al mean­ing for its direc­tor. What was prob­a­bly intend­ed as a love let­ter to a bygone era of Hong Kong’s his­to­ry, a con­struc­tion of child­hood scenes where gos­sip­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers played Mahjong all night long, has now mutat­ed into a mourn­ful trea­tise to lux­u­ri­ate in fad­ing pasts. Whether it is a per­son, a place, or a mem­o­ry, every frame of Wong’s mas­ter­work allows view­ers to get lost in their own sink­hole of long­ing. Recent box office and crit­i­cal hits like the Daniels’ Every­thing Every­where All at Once or Celine Song’s Past Lives are evi­dence that Wong’s impulse for nos­tal­gia remains as wide­spread as ever. Though the for­mer is far more direct in its homage to Wong’s film, both grap­ple with visions of what could’ve been. A vivid recall of fond mem­o­ries and the inven­tion of alter­na­tive futures might be our best recourse in deal­ing with an over­stim­u­lat­ing, and over­bear­ing present. 

In The Mood For Love + In the Mood for Love 2001 will screen at venues across New York and Lon­don this summer.